Choices Are Never Easy
by Moon Kitty
Summary: Cheetor and Chatalia are sent to investigate a strange signal and are then faced with a difficult decision. Second in the Beast Chronicles series.


** **

**_Choices Are Never Easy_**

**_By: Moon Kitty_**

**Part 1:**

Chatalia was walking through the halls of the Axalon. She was in robot mode, which was completely silver except for the parts from her beast mode that were black. The way her beast mode parts went into her robot mode was the same as Cheetor's old form. Her helmet looked more like Blackarachnia's except she had something that resembled a tiara on it. She had a thin silver face and cat-like emerald green eyes. Her lips were also silver and inside her mouth she had sharp teeth that looked a lot like vampire's teeth. For weapons, she had a whip, a quasar gun, and wrist missiles like the ones Tigatron had. She also had claws that came out of her fingers like cats' claws did.

She was singing to herself a song by a human named Britney Spears, "My loneliness is killing me, baby. I must confess, I still believe. Still believe. When I'm not with you, I loss my mind. Give me a sign. Hit me baby one more time!"(*Note: No, I do not like Britney Spears, I just had that song stuck in my head at the time I wrote this.)

She stopped singing once she reached the control room's entrance. She was just about to enter when Dinobot exited. "Out of my way female!" Dinobot growled.

"Jeez, what the inferno is your problem?" she asked sounding just a little annoyed.

Dinobot growled back at her and stalked down the hallway. Once he was out of sight, Chatalia sighed to herself. _Why did he always have to be in such a bad mood all the time anyway? Just then Rattrap appeared. "Hey Shit-Head" Chatalia greeted the vermin._

"'Ey feline" he greeted her back. _Primus! Rattrap hated the new nickname Chatalia had given him._

"So, what did you do this time to piss him off?" asked Chatalia referring to Dinobot.

"Why do ya right away presume dat it's my fault?"

"Because usually when someone's pissed, it's usually your fault," Chatalia pointed out.

"Everybody needs a hobby," Rattrap shrugged.

"Well stop it!" said Chatalia angrily, "The last time you pissed him off like that, I was the one stuck with him for patrolling! Do you have any idea what it's like having to patrol for Predacons with a very crabby velociraptor?" 

"Yeah, actually I do. Anyways," said Rattrap trying to change the subject, "Fearless-Leader wants tah see ya." 

"Oh joy!" said Chatalia sarcastically. She went into the control room and saw Optimus and Rhinox at the computer console. "What's up?" she asked.

"I want you and Cheetor to go check something out," said Optimus.

"What is it?" asked Chatalia.

"We've detected a strange signal coming from the desert sector," replied Optimus.

"Could it be from the aliens you were telling me about?" asked Chatalia.

"No, this signal is different," said Rhinox, "It matches neither Maximal, Predacon, nor alien signals."

"That's freaky," said Chatalia.

Rhinox nodded in agreement.

"So where's Cheets?" she asked.

"He's waiting for you outside," said Optimus.

"Alright, ciao!" said Chatalia as she went into one of the ship's elevators and left.

***

Tarantulas was walking through the halls of the Predacon base heading towards the control room. Tarantulas knew that he would have to return eventually, so he left Manterra at his lair. Just as he was returning to base, those idiots Inferno and the new Predacon, Jetstorm, had found him. They said that Megatron wanted to see him. Now they were escorting him to Megatron, who obviously wasn't very happy about his disappearance earlier.

They entered the control room and found Megatron and Waspinator there.

"So Tarantulas, where were you?" Megatron said calmly. But Tarantulas knew that he was really angry.

"Well… you see Megatron. I was so into my work that I never even notice the pods." That was the best excuse Tarantulas could think of. Excuses weren't exactly his strong point.

"Well then next time be sure to leave your comlink on!" Megatron snapped. He really didn't believe Tarantulas' excuse, but he needed him to do a job for him.

"As you wish," said Tarantulas wondering why he got off so easily.

"Good, now I want you, Inferno, Jetstorm, and Waspinator to go to the desert sector to check something out for me. I have detected strange signals coming from the area," said Megatron.

_Oh great! Tarantulas thought, __now I'm stuck with three of the most stupid Predacons ever!_

_ _

"And…" Megatron continued, "…I want you to be on the lookout for Maximals."

"Yes my Queen!" said Inferno doing a salute.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!!!" yelled Megatron.

"Yes my…" Inferno stopped when he realized that he was about to do the same mistake again, "…leader."

"That's better. Now go!"

The four Predacons transformed into beast mode and left.

***

"So, how long do you think it's gonna take us to get there?" asked Chatalia who was riding on top of the Transmetal cheetah in her beast mode. She was riding on top of him because he could fly, and they figured it would be faster flying and that they could hopefully get there before the Predacons did.

"We're not far, we should get there soon," replied Cheetor.

"Good, 'cause I'm getting tired of looking down and all I see is sand, sand, and more sand!" complained Chatalia.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," agreed Cheetor.

"You know, I kinda fell sorry for humans in those movies where they get lost in some desert and they have no food or water," said Chatalia.

"Me too. That reminds me of this really good Earthling book I once read in high school where two children got lost in the Australian desert. I think it was called 'Walkabout'. Well I don't think you're interested about that though…" said Cheetor.

"No, no! Please, tell me what happened!" said Chatalia wanting to hear the story.

"Okay. These two kids are going to Australia to visit a relative. But their plane crashes in the desert, and since it was one of those small planes, there is only the pilot and the kids. The pilot doesn't survive. So the kids are all alone in the desert. They have only the supplies that they could recover from the crash debris. 

"Anyways, eventually they meet up with this Aboriginal boy. The kids try to communicate with him, but he doesn't speak the same language. But he soon gets the message that the two kids are lost and hungry, so he helps them by getting them food and water. As time goes by, the kids are traveling with the Aboriginal boy through the desert.

"Well that's really all I can remember about the story, but I do know that the kids do eventually find their way back to civilization." Cheetor finished his story.

"That was a really nice story, thanks. It passed the time," said Chatalia.

"No prob." said Cheetor.

"Hey what's that?!" Chatalia said suddenly.

"What?" asked Cheetor.

"Look at the horizon, it looks like some kind of mountain." 

Cheetor looks into the horizon. "Yeah, you're right! But are you sure that's a mountain?"

"Maybe that's what's making the weird signal. We should go check it out!" suggested Chatalia.

"Right!"

The two Maximals took off towards the horizon.

A few moments later they reached their destination. What they thought was a mountain, wasn't a mountain. It appeared to be a pyramid, like the ones the ancient Egyptians once made. Cheetor landed to let Chatalia off of him.

"Cool," she said.

"You're telling me," Cheetor agreed. He turned on his comlink, "Cheetor to base, do you read?"

_~ "Optimus here. What did you find?" ~_

_ _

"Some kind of pyramid. You know, like those Egyptian ones."

_~ "But that's impossible!" ~_

_ _

"Would you like us to get a closer look?"

_~ "No, just wait right there for me" ~_

_ _

Cheetor was about to reply when he heard in the distance "FOR THE ROYALTY!!!" coming from Inferno.

"Uh oh, we got Pred problems!" said Cheetor into the comlink.

_~ "Try to hold them off the best you can. I'll send reinforcements! Optimus out." ~_

_ _

Cheetor turned off his comlink. "Cheetor, MAXIMIZE!"

"Chatalia, MAXIMIZE!"

"Looks like we're gonna have ourselves a fight!" said Jetstorm to his fellow Predacons.

"Wazpinator will deztroy cat-botzz! Wazzpinator, TERRORIZZZE!"

"Jetstorm, TERRORIZE!" Jetstorm's transformation was a lot like Waspinator's. His coloring was mostly different shades of green.He had insect looking red eyes and a huge mouth and no nose. For a weapon, he had a really big gun that was formed out of his beast mode tail.

"I guess I should join in the fight too then," said Tarantulas reluctantly, "Tarantulas, TERRORIZE!"

Inferno was already in robot form so he didn't need to transform. 

The Maximals and Predacons exchanged blows to each other. Cheetor and Chatalia tried their best to fight back, but they were outnumbered.

"This is hopeless, by the time we get any damage on them, we'll both be slag!" said Chatalia.

"Do you have a plan?" asked Cheetor.

"Nope, I was hoping you did," said Chatalia

"Well, like Rattrap would say: 'We're all gonna die!' " said Cheetor quoting Rattrap's favorite line.

"This is too easy, can't these Maximals fight?" asked Jetstorm.

"Wazpinator happy it eazy. That way Wazpinator no get blown up!"

Just then, a part of the pyramid started to glow. It then shot out a beam of energy right at the Maximals. The energy beam started to make the Maximals glow too and then they disappeared into thin air.

"Hey! Where'd they go?" asked Jetstorm confused.

"Interesting…" said Tarantulas to himself.

** **

**Part 2:**

"Cheetor and Chatalia are in trouble, we'll have to go help them!" Optimus said to the other Maximals.

"But who's gonna stay and watch dah base?" asked Rattrap.

"Well, since you so nicely offered, you can stay and guard the base," said Optimus.

"What! Not me, I meant someone else!" protested Rattrap.

Dinobot smirked.

"You shut up Chopper-Face!" threatened Rattrap.

"You gonna make me, vermin!" snarled Dinobot.

"Yer slagin' right I am!" Rattrap shot back.

"Dinobot! Forget Rattrap for now and let's go!" Optimus said impatiently.

The Maximals left leaving Rattrap alone by himself.

"Oh, dis is gonna be fun!" Rattrap said sarcastically to himself, "Great! Now I'm talking to myself!"

***

Cheetor woke up. "Where am I?" he looked around to find himself in some kind of tropical paradise. "How'd I get here? Wherever here is. The last thing I remember is getting hit by that beam of energy, then disappearing…" Cheetor started to walk around when he noticed something different about himself. He looked down at his paws and saw that they were no longer green Transmetal paws, but cheetah paws, like the ones of his old beast mode. "By the Matrix!" he gasped. "Cheetor, MAXIMIZE!" Nothing happened. 

"Don't bother trying to transform, I've tried it already and it doesn't work."

Cheetor looked in the direction the voice came from and saw Chatalia. 

"What happened to you?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. But somehow I got changed back into my old beast form."

"Okay, this is starting to get freaky. Where do you think we are?"

"I don't know. But it reminds me of the 'Flying Island'. Well actually, I never saw it, Tigatron just told me about it, and this place matches the description," said Cheetor.

"Whose Tigatron?" asked Chatalia.

"He was a good friend of mine… but he's gone now along with Airazor, another friend…" Cheetor put his head down suddenly feeling sadness for his friends.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Chatalia put her panther paw on Cheetor's back, trying to make him feel better. "Hey, why don't we try to find a way out of here?" she said trying to change the subject.

Cheetor forgot his sadness, "Alright. But if it's a flying island, then how do we get off it? I can't fly anymore."

"I don't think it's an island. I think we're inside the pyramid," said Chatalia.

"But how can we be inside when we're outside?" asked Cheetor confused.

"It could be an illusion."

"You could be right. So, which way do you think is the way out of here?"

"I don't know, how about that way?" Chatalia pointed in a certain direction.

"Sure, why not? What do we have to lose?"

The two cats walked off in the direction Chatalia had pointed out before.

***

"Tarantulas to Megatron," Tarantulas said over his comlink.

_~ "Megatron here. What did you find?" ~_

_ _

"It appears to be a pyramid."

_~ "Did you have any Maximal trouble?" ~_

_ _

"Yes, we did. But they disappeared."

_~ "Disappeared? What do you mean disappeared?" ~ _

"Well, the pyramid shot a beam of energy at them and they disappeared."

_~ "This is good, yesss. So who were these unlucky Maximals?" ~_

_ _

"The cheetah and another one that I never saw before, probably the new Maximal."

_~ "Only two? Oh well, I guess it's better than nothing." ~_

_ _

"So, what do you want us to do now?"

~ "I want you to stay where you are and wait for me. And, I don't want you touching that pyramid or you'll become the newest addition to my trophy wall. Is that clear Tarantulas?" ~

_ _

"Crystal."

_~ "Good. Megatron out." ~_

_ _

Tarantulas turned off his comlink.

"Incoming Maximals!" warned Inferno.

"The felines must have called for reinforcements!" said Tarantulas.

"No matter. They all shall BURN!!!" yelled Inferno.

***

"Predacons up ahead!" said Optimus.

"Yeah, but where's Chatalia and Cheetor?" asked Silverbolt.

"I don't know, but I think their absence has to do with that pyramid," said Optimus.

Optimus and Silverbolt were flying with Rhinox and Dinobot trying to keep up on the ground.

"Finally we get a good fight!" said Dinobot, "Dinobot, MAXIMIZE!"

"Rhinox, MAXIMIZE!"

"Optimus Primal, MAXIMIZE!"

"Silverbolt, MAXIMIZE!"

The fight had begun.

***

"You know, this place is kinda nice. It's really beautiful here," said Chatalia.

"Yeah, no fighting, no Optimus telling you what to do, no Rattrap teasing you all the time…"

Chatalia cut Cheetor off "…no having to put up with Dinobot's attitude."

"Yep, it's definitely nice here," agreed Cheetor.

"This may sound crazy, but why don't we just stay here? It's not like anyone is gonna miss us," said Chatalia.

"Well, they might start to miss us after a while… well, everyone except Dinobot," said Cheetor.

"I doubt he even misses his own mother! In fact, I don't think she misses him either!"

Cheetor laughed, and Chatalia joined in the laughter. They continued to make fun of all the Maximals and Predacons. 

***

Meanwhile, the fight outside continued on. Megatron, Rampage, Quickstrike, and Blackarachnia had also joined in. A lot of the fight was being fought in the air while the ones who could not fly were fighting from the ground.

Dinobot was trying to shot Waspinator with his eye-beams.

"Ha ha! Lizard-bot can't get Wazzpinator!" Waspinator laughed.

This just managed to anger Dinobot more. Finally he got Waspinator who started to crash to the ground, head first.

"Hey traitor, why don't you take on somebody who might be more of a challenge!" yelled Quickstrike who was with Rampage.

"Gladly!" snarled Dinobot. He started to fight both Rampage and Quickstrike at the same time.

Waspinator just got his head out of the ground. He stood up dizzily, "Why doezz Wazzpinator have starz floating around head?" He fell backwards, knocking himself unconscious. 

Megatron, seeing this sighed, "It's so hard to find good help these days."

"You're the one who's going to be needing help soon!" shouted Optimus as he shot his missiles at Megatron. The missiles did not do much damage, but they were enough to make Megatron mad.

"Primal!" hissed Megatron, "You'll pay for that, yesss!" with that, he started to fire his own weapons at Optimus.

"This is hopeless! They outnumber us two-to-one!" said Silverbolt who was fighting with both Jetstorm and Inferno.

"We have to keep fighting! They already have two friends of ours!" encouraged Optimus.

"For once Primal, you are wrong. It was not us who took your friends, but the aliens," said Megatron, "just like your other two friends." 

Optimus usually did not get that angry, but now, he was furious. He fired at Megatron with all he had.

The fight continued on like this.

**Part 3:**

Cheetor and Chatalia had been walking when they found a strange circle on the ground. Inside the circle, it was completely stone with carved symbols in it. The stone circle was about ten meters in diameter.

"What do you think it is?" asked Cheetor.

"I have no clue," replied Chatalia. She walked up to the circle and touched it with her paw. The circle started to glow.

"What'd you do?" asked Cheetor.

"I didn't do anything, I just touched it," Chatalia backed away from the circle as it continued to glow.

The area around them then started to change from tropical paradise to what looked like the inside of an Egyptian pyramid.

"Now where are we?" 

"I think we're inside the pyramid," replied Chatalia.

"So now how do we get out of here? This place is probably a maze!" exclaimed Cheetor.

"So many questions, you must be young ones," said a voice.

"Who was that?!" asked Chatalia a bit startled.

"I'm the Guardian," replied the voice.

"The guardian of what?" asked Chatalia.

"Of time and space," the voice answered her.

"What are you going to do to us?" Cheetor asked worriedly.

"Do not worry, I mean you no harm child," assured voice.

"Yeah, well that's not what your alien pals had in mind!" said Cheetor.

"I am not the same as the ones who tried to destroy you. I tried to stop them from harming you by proving that not all of you are evil. But… I fear my Flying Island did not work as well as I had hoped," said the voice.

"I thought that the Flying Island was made to test intelligent beings," said Cheetor.

"No. The traps were for the evil ones, and the tower was to make sure you did not fight. I really made it to show that you could live there peacefully. It was going so well until the evil ones arrived," explained the voice.

"So, what **do_ you want with us?" interrupted Chatalia._**

"Since I am unable to prove that some of you are good, I will give you a choice. Stay here; in this land of paradise where you can get anything you want. Or, to return to your friends where you will have to fight in the war. I will give you some time to think about it," offered voice.

"Will our friends be able to stay too?" asked Cheetor.

"No. They must stay to stop the evil ones from getting the power they seek," replied the voice.

"Look, whoever you are…" Chatalia started, but was interrupted by the voice.

"You may call me Guardian, but I think Cleopatra is a more suitable name," said the voice who had just named herself Cleopatra.

"I thought Cleopatra was the queen of the Nile, or something like that," said Cheetor.

"I know, but I like the name. Plus, Cleopatra was a very special person in this planet's history, so it's an honor to name myself after her," replied Cleopatra.

"Anyways, like I was about to say. Why would you want us to stay here?" asked Chatalia.

"Well, depending on which side won, I would be saving both your lives; and also you could stay here to keep me company, I get very lonely," said Cleopatra.

"Wait a minute. You said that you're the Guardian of time and space, wouldn't you already know which side will win?" Chatalia pointed out.

"Yes, but time can take on so many different paths, and these paths can change easily," explained Cleopatra.

"How long do we have to make this decision?" asked Chatalia.

"As much time as you need. I will leave you for awhile. Then, once you've made your decision, call my name and I will return and you can tell me what your choice is," said Cleopatra.

When Cheetor and Chatalia were pretty sure that Cleopatra was gone, (it's hard to tell if she's gone because they can't see her) they started to discuss.

"So, what do you think?" Chatalia asked Cheetor.

"Well… it could be nice here. She did say we could get what ever we wanted," he replied.

"Yeah, but do you think it would be a good idea if we stayed?"

"But weren't you saying before that you wanted to stay here?"

"I was joking around. I didn't really mean it… though, it would be nice," Chatalia thought about it.

"Maybe we should stay. I mean, I never wanted to be in this war anyway. I signed up on the Axalon to go exploring, not to go to war."

"Cheetor, I know how much you don't want to be in this war, I don't want to be in it any more than you. But, we both know that we can't abandon our friends, even if we must risk our lives to help them."

"You're right, I'm being selfish. I just don't like this stupid war."

"Neither do I, but choices are never easy. So, we'll stick by our friends?"

"Yeah, just like they'd do for us." Cheetor agreed.

"Cleopatra!" Chatalia called.

"Have you made your decision?" Cleopatra asked.

"Yes. We are sorry we must turn down your offer, but we must return to our friends."

"You have made a good decision. Thinking about your friends before yourselves," said Cleopatra

"But I thought you said that you wanted us to stay because you would get lonely?" asked Cheetor.

"Yes, I did say that. But this was another test to prove that not all of you are evil. And you passed it by giving up something you want for your friends. The aliens will bother your kind no more," said Cleopatra, "but only on the condition that you don't do anything to disrupt the time stream.

"You mean that this was another test the whole time?" Cheetor asked, confused.

"Yes, and the aliens have decided to return your friends as well," said Cleopatra as a part of the room lighted up and two figures appeared in the light. As the light died down, the two figures were revealed to be a white tiger and a falcon.

"Tigatron and Airazor!" exclaimed Cheetor.

"Yes, it is your friends," continued Cleopatra, "they are unconscious now because they are weak, but I believe the thing you call a 'CR chamber' can help them."

"Thank you!" said Cheetor.

"You're welcome. Now, I believe that you young ones would like to leave," said Cleopatra.

"But Cleopatra, what about my Transmetal form?" asked Cheetor.

"Would you like it back?"

"Yes please."

"Very well then," said Cleopatra as Cheetor started to glow. He then changed from normal cheetah, to Transmetal cheetah. "You will be able to transform now," Cleopatra added.

"Will we ever hear from you again?" asked Chatalia.

"Probably not. As I said before, time can take on many paths, and these paths can change easily," said Cleopatra, "good bye young ones, and good luck," with that Cleopatra left.

After she left, a door leading outside opened.

"I guess that's the exit," said Chatalia.

Cheetor and Chatalia carried the unconscious Tigatron and Airazor out with them. Outside, they saw that there was a fight going on. They placed Tigatron and Airazor somewhere safe and joined in the fight. The fight did not last long though, because both sides were very damaged, so they both retreated.

***

Later back at the Axalon, Cheetor and Chatalia were telling their story to the other Maximals.

"It's hard to believe what you're telling us," said Optimus.

"Yeah, and I can't believe I missed such a good fight too!" complained Rattrap.

"How much longer do Airazor and Tigatron have left in the CR chambers?" asked Cheetor.

"They should be out any second," replied Rhinox. Not long after he said that, the CR chambers opened up. Tigatron and Airazor emerged in robot mode.

Airazor looked around. Finally realizing where she was, "We're back!" she said.

"Your right! We are back!" said Tigatron.

"Welcome back Big-Cat!" greeted Cheetor.

"Little-Cat," smiled Tigatron.

"It's nice to have you back," said Optimus.

"Optimus! How's this possible? Didn't you die?" asked Airazor very shocked.

"It's a long story," replied Optimus.

"You look different," commented Tigatron.

Optimus nodded. "I like you to meet two newer members of the Maximals. This is Silverbolt, he came not long before you two disappeared."

"Greetings," said Silverbolt.

"And this one is Chatalia, she came to us just recently," Optimus continued.

"Hi. It's nice to see another female here," said Chatalia to Airazor.

"Ditto," replied Airazor.

"Great! Now dere'll be three felines tah get mad at me!" complained Rattrap, "What's next, more raptors?"

Dinobot snarled at him.

"Which reminds me Chopper-Face. We still 'ave a fight tah finish," said Rattrap.

Dinobot and Rattrap started their usual bickering.

"I see those two still like to argue," said Airazor.

"The day they get along, is the day I find Rattrap attractive," agreed Chatalia.

"Hey, you never know," grinned Airazor.

"Eww!" replied Chatalia in disgust.

"Aw, c'mon! I ain't dat bad!" protested Rattrap who couldn't help but overhear their conversation.

"Feh! Dinobot has more of a chance at getting a girlfriend than you, Shit-Head!" Chatalia insulted him. Dinobot tried to cover up a grin from hearing that comment.

**_The End_**


End file.
